21 May 2024 – WRAP’s latest Food Waste Tracking Survey shows that while we throw away less food than the previous survey found, still 20% of the food bought is wasted.
Food production accounts for around 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time a third of all food produced is thrown away, showing the scale of the problem.
According to the climate action NGO WRAP, 60% of wasted food in the UK comes from households, costing Brits a staggering £17bn a year in uneaten food.
This waste is associated with 18 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, a big contribution to global warming and climate change.
Every six months, WRAP conducts a survey questioning the British people about their food habits and tracking they waste. The latest survey was sent out in November 2023, with results having been published in March this year.
The results show that self-reported waste of food has decreased from June last year, but still sits at 20%.
Food Waste Decreased By 6.9%
The survey focused on six key products that are most often wasted: bread, chicken, milk, and potatoes. 5,151 UK adults were questioned about their views and behaviours around waste of food.
Compared to the previous survey, which took place in June 2023, the amount of self-reported wasted food has fallen from 21.7% to 20.2%, which is a 6.9% drop. Even though this decrease is good news, the levels are still much higher than in 2018 and 2020-2021.
But it’s also lower than in November 2019, when it was at its highest level. Compared to this peak, self-reported levels have dropped by 16.1%.
Potatoes produced the most waste, with 21.3% thrown away, followed closely by bread, with 20.94% wasted. 18.9% of bought chicken was binned rather than eaten and 17.9% of milk was not drank.
The survey also asked if the respondents would classify themselves as producing higher levels of food waste. 26% did put themselves in this category, down from 28% in June last year.
People who often have displaced meals head up the list of big wasters, with 52% being in this category. The age group 18-34-year-olds follow with 36% wasting higher levels of food.
32% of people with children between 0 and 11 years of age come under this category and 30% of households with children between 12 and 17. And 29% of people who don’t believe that it’s a big issue are high level wasters.
Least Well Off Waste The Most
Interestingly, the financial situation plays a part too, but not in the way you might think. The more a household is struggling financially, the more food they are wasting.
People who said they struggled a lot with their outgoings wasted 23.7% of food, compared to 21.4% for those who struggled a little. The least waste, 16.7%, was produced by those who said they don’t struggle at all.
These figures throw up interesting questions. The assumption would be that people who struggle financially would make sure their food stretches as much as possible, so less waste would occur.
But the opposite seems to be the case, why is that? Often bigger packs are better value for money. And buying a pack of fruits or vegetables is also more cost-effective than buying them individually.
This encourages people to buy more than they need, because it’s better value for money. And households that struggle financially, will be more sensitive to this. Whereas people with no financial struggles are more likely to buy what they need, even if it turns out to be worse value for money.
As a result, the more people struggle, the more waste they have, as indicated in the data of the WRAP survey.
Our Opinion – Be Organised
Here at EcomHomeLife we hate wasting food, and we put a lot of effort into avoiding it. And our biggest weapon is being organised when it comes to meal planning and food shopping.
At home, we do one weekly shop, where we buy all our food for the upcoming week. To ensure food waste is kept to a minimum, we plan breakfasts, lunches and dinners for each day.
Like many people, we have a weekly budget too, so if a bigger pack of veggies or meat is better value for money, we’ll buy it. But we then plan to use the excess. So if we have carrots leftover from one meal, we make sure we plan another meal with them.
Food stuffs such as fish, meat, bread and even cheese we freeze to make them last longer. Often we make up a leftover meal. This mostly involves throwing everything we have left, such as beans, veggies, meat, together in a pan, fry it, add a can of chopped tomatoes and serve it with pasta, rice or bread.
You can get really creative with it, and it’s surprising how often we create a super nutritious and delicious meal. We also make sure we eat meals that use ingredients with a shorter life early in the week, to prevent them going off.
Reducing the amount of food you waste isn’t just great for the environment, but also for your bottom line, because you don’t buy food that you then just throw away.
